D2SL TongFu vs. Orange - semi-final recap

The second semi-final of the Dota 2 Super League was played today, as TongFu took on the lone foreign challenger in Orange NeoES, in order to determine who would join DK in the Grand Finals, which will be played on July 7th. Coming up tomorrow though will be the Third Place Decider match, on June 29th at 11:00 CEST.

TongFu vs. Orange NeoES

Game 1

For the first game of the day, Orange went for the offensive trilane with Chai Yee 'Mushi' Fung on Weaver together with Lina and Sand King up against the Anti-Mage of Chen 'Hao' Zhihao together with his Shadow Demon and Jakiro supports. This left Zhang 'Mu' Pan on Storm Spirit edging out the Dark Seer of Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo at mid while Lee Kong 'Ky.xY' Yang on Lone Druid dominated the top lane up against the Clockwerk of Yang 'KingJ' Zou.

As TongFu claimed the first blood on bottom lane, killing the Lina who was slightly out of position, what damage had been dealt to the early farm of Hao was quickly undone as TongFu looked to get the better trade out of the trilane vs. trilane situation. However early aggression eventually turned in Oranges favour as the teams began rotating more around the map, but at the same time Hao was busy making up for his slightly weak start, rising to the top of the net worth by the mid game, followed by Ky.xY on the Lone Druid for Orange.

While Orange kept up the pressure, their attempt at pushing into the base at 37 minutes in proved an overextension, as Hao declared that he was done farming, jumping into the fray and changing the tide. From here on after, his presence in fights was domineering, as even though Orange were able to find some kills on the rest of the TongFu lineup, a six-slotted Hao was able to stay alive and go blow for blow.

While Orange looked to mount a strong resistance at 46 minutes in, landing a big Epicenter and killing off the Shadow Demon and following it up with a kill on Hao's Anti-mage, the buyback and Teleport back into the fight was too much for them to deal with, as they fell one by one to the Revenge of the Anti-Mage, who proceeded to break their base and force out the 'GG'.

The end screen for game 1 can't be acquired as the VoD in DotaTV isn't working at this time.

Game 2

For the second game, Orange went with a safelane dual lane of Ky.xY on Puck backed up by the Sand King with Chan Zhan 'Xtinct' Leong on Enchantress going into the jungle, leaving space for KingJ on the offlane Timbersaw, who managed to get the first blood early on due to Reactive Armor helping him turn around Oranges gank attempt. This left Mu on Alchemist to solo up the middle lane against the Outworld Devourer of Mushi, while Hao took his Gyrocopter to the safelane along with Rubick, with Wang 'Banana' Jiao on Chen going into the jungle until they were ready to push the early Tier 1 Tower on the top lane, removing some of the safety of Ohaiyo's offlane Windrunner, who was falling behind quite badly.

As Orange began to realize the power of the offlane Timbersaw they eventually started trying to experiment in order to find a better laning combination, in order to allow Puck to farm up his Blink Dagger freely. However, while things were looking all sunshine and rainbows for TongFu, with an early Roshan kill under their belt, the Chinese team got slightly overcnfident, diving a bit too farm at mid lane and having it turned around on them, as Orange claimed four and got a bit of breathing room, but only a bit as TongFu corrected their mistakes by the next engagement, as they kept on pushing towers, claiming map control and building up their advantage.

As they controlled all the major objectives while losing only one tower of their own, TongFu built up their decisive advantage, eventually breaking the base at 35 minutes, claiming key kills and forcing Orange to call the 'GG'.

Game 2 End Screen

Game 3

Sensing the offensive trilane cmoing out of TongFu, Orange put Mushi on a solo mid Anti-Mage, leaving Ky.xY on Lifestealer together with Jakiro and Rubick to face off against the KingJ Windrunner backed up by Shadow Demon and Sven on the top lane. Then left Mu's Dragon Knight at mid lane, sending Hao on the Weaver to the solo safelane at bottom, where he found Ohaiyo's Dark Seer waiting for him.

While Hao held his own at bottom lane, Mushi managed to came out on top of the farm war at mid, but the key to the early game was the top lane, where Orange managed to pick up two early kills, giving Ky.xY the space he needed to farm freely, winning them the lane and giving them the first good start to a game for this series.

While early aggression looked to be working in Oranges favour as the rotations of Xtinct on Rubick and Wai Pern 'Net' Lim on Jakiro connected with deadly accuracy, TongFu kept themselves in good shape in terms of farm in the early game, but along with the transition to the mid game Orange gained momentum at an ever increasing pace, expanding the difference in farm at an alarming rate before Mushi even had his Battlefury. As TongFu lost a major teamfight at 20 minutes in, they saw no reason to keep the game going, instead calling the early 'GG'.

Game 3 End Screen

Game 4

Both teams went for the defensive trilane option with greedy lineups, as Mushi took to the Luna on bottom lane together with pulling supports Keeper of the Light and Earthshaker, against KingJ's Clockwerk who was trying to hide creeps in the woods with his Cogs, but was getting very little out of it. This left Ky.xY on the solo mid Alchemist against the Dragon Knight of Mu, while Ohaiyo on the Dark Seer dodged the offlane, opting instead to farm up his own jungle at the expense of absolute freefarm for Hao's Weaver while Rubick was pulling and Banana parked his Nature's Prophet in his own jungle.

Orange tried to punish KingJ for playing a bit out, trying to use Fissure to block him his escape path and allow Mushi to Eclipse in order to secure the kill, but KingJ dropping the cogs and knocking him back stopped the ultimate, opening it up for a Teleport reaction from TongFu, who claimed the first blood and walked away with a 2-1 result after the extended skirmish, showing that they wanted to be active in the early game.

The next few fights went back and forth, as TongFu took some fights they didn't need to given that they were getting into good position with the farm of their tripple cores, who all lead the way over Mushi's Luna, while Ky.xY was trailing quite a bit, having lost his lane and then stalled, as tends to happen for Orange more recently when Mushi plays the carry role, taking all free farm on the map and leaving none for secondary cores on his own team.

With a massive lead mounting, TongFu pressured Orange from all sides, allowing them to breach the high ground at multiple points 33 minutes in, forcing Orange to split up and try to defend, not having enough damage at any given position to make a difference, and ending up calling the 'GG' as their base crumbled around them.

Game 4 End Screen

TongFu routes Orange 3-1 in order to claim their place in the Grand Finals of the D2SL.